Evolution isn't working fast enough. More dumbasses need to be shot.

Month

March 2015

I was going to write a post on discrimination and how it’s become something associated with all sorts of negative feelings and stereotypes, when in reality we all exercise discrimination every day. Why someone of faith should be vilified for refusing to do business with/participate in a ceremony of someone who openly flaunts the first person’s convictions, while others embrace the depravity espoused by people who want to revel in sin seems upside down. Having the government force someone to lead another down the path to destruction simply because they have a business seems to be an over-reach of the type of government our founding fathers envisioned.

I have been watching this ‘debate’ over discrimination with great amusement. First of all, I shouldn’t call it a debate. In reality, it is bullying, but not by the people discriminating, but by the people who claim to be trying to stop discrimination. Their hypocrisy is endless. How can they not see that by forcing their views onto others — even in the supposed name of ending ‘unfairness’ — they are discriminating, themselves. This notion that you can right a wrong with another wrong is irrational, but — sadly — it is what has come to pass for reason in our dysfunctional society. The truth is, if we still understood the principles underlying this issue, we would understand that we all have a Natural Right to discriminate. This right is even protected in the Constitution. This means that the people trying to use government force to end discrimination are violating…

I don’t usually take to fisking the comments of others in the field, but the recent words of Teresa Nielsen-Hayden simply demand it. Since my inception as a professional, I have made the case for an “open” system. No barriers. Not on writers, and not on fans. Publish, connect with your audience (for fun and profit!) and for God’s sake, no more gatekeeping of the “ghetto” that is the literary Science Fiction and Fantasy field. Writers are writers are writers, and fans are fans are fans. My reasoning along these lines is not original to me. Others were saying similar things ten-plus years ago. But now it’s gotten to the point that certain would-be gatekeepers have become so thoroughly convinced of their station — and so absolutely sure of your unworthiness to partake — that it’s time to stand up.

According to our leftist friends, who prefer to measure inputs rather than outputs, this is a cause for celebration. I guess it shows we have the best intentions. Or maybe we love our kids the most.

For those who prefer to focus on outputs, however, it’s very difficult to be happy about the results we’re getting compared to all the money that’s being spent. Heck, in some cases it’s almost as if we’re getting negative results when you compare inputs and outputs.

To paraphrase what Winston Churchill said about the Royal Air Force in World War II, never have so many paid so much to achieve so little.

I recently looked up the meaning of bourgeois. All these years I’ve thought of it as excessively materialistic as that is how it seems to be thrown around in the books I’ve read. Almost exclusively as a derogatory epithet. According to Merriam-Webster it almost certainly describes me!

Bourgeois1
1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of the social middle class
2 : marked by a concern for material interests and respectability and a tendency toward mediocrity
3 : dominated by commercial and industrial interests : capitalistic

Bourgeois2
1 a : burgher
b : a middle-class person
2 : a person with social behavior and political views held to be influenced by private-property interest : capitalist Continue reading “I am bourgeoisie”→

I pisses me off to no end that we’ve had ‘no smoking’ laws rammed down our throats for the last couple of decades all because someone ‘might’ get cancer while working in a bar. Before the no smoking laws were passed EVERY SINGLE NON-SMOKING BAR in the area closed within a couple of years because they couldn’t get patrons, so the argument was always that these workers never had any choice in where to work. WTF! Of course there were choices, they just didn’t pay as well.

The filthy movie I went to see the other night was smearing climate skeptics, by trying to link them to the mentality of people who said second hand smoke doesn’t cause cancer back in the 1960’s (during the global cooling scare.)

Everyone was exposed to second hand smoke when I was kid in the US, as are most of the people in Europe today. So I looked up what researchers are currently saying about second hand smoke. The National Cancer Institute says there is no link between second hand smoke and cancer.

I remember first hearing about them coming to town in the mid 90’s. I was so excited. A BIG bookstore, even if they were a chain, was finally coming to Fargo and we could finally, maybe, get some more diverse choices in books. Sure there was a B.Dalton in the mall, but you could hardly turn around in there without bumping into something. The one little independent bookstore down town had even less selection than the B.Dalton did. When Barnes & Noble first opened I was ecstatic. Lots of space, tons of books, long hours, and the people seemed friendly and helpful. I spent a lot of time in the store. I got a membership for the added deals.

When MediaPlay opened down the street I was once again in heaven. While MediaPlay had a bigger selection of movies, games and music, their book section was pretty good as well. But, B&N was still where I hung out the most. The little independent bookstore downtown closed with little fanfare. Eventually, the used bookstore did as well. Then MediaPlay hit hard times and closed too. This left just two bookstores in town (not including the Christian bookstores), B&N and a little used bookstore across the street. Of course, now the B&N in town is cluttered up with a bunch of games.

When I first started looking at eReaders I checked out the details and the reviews of several. I went and looked at the offerings at Best Buy to see which one looked and felt the best in my hands. Eventually I settled on B&N’s Nook Simple Touch which had just come out. My wife bought it for me for Father’s Day.

Gone are the days in which we once cherished the delicate balance between government authority and individual liberty.

Our Constitution, that once connected one generation to the next by restraining the excess of the present, is being erased.

The terms and conditions for governing that once held the same meaning under our Constitution in the past no longer applies to the present as both political parties are unwilling to respect or even defend the Constitution.

The President of the United States faces no opposition from either elected party in Congress as he imposes his vision of transforming our Republic. By relinquishing their power to check the President, Congress has thus become an enabler of their end while their constituents are forced to subsidize their own demise.

The President, having a mind disposed to adaptation according to political expedients that serve the contemporary policy agenda of his choosing, is acting akin…

I started this blog about 4.5 years ago with a simple, 5-page complaint stating that imaging my body as a condition of flying violates my rights. The case was filed in a U.S. District Court, then went to a U.S. Court of Appeals, then denied a U.S. Supreme Court review, then back to the Court of Appeals, and now, back to the Supreme Court. If they refuse to hear my case, litigation around the body scanners is over: my case can’t proceed and a challenge from anyone else would be time-barred. If they accept it, it will be a few more years before anything is final, as we work through the Supreme Court arguments process and then (hopefully) end up back in the Court of Appeals. In the meantime, of course, the government is free to continue to abuse our rights.